2022 – m3: trainstation as axis mundi

As a teenager, I often looked for a place in the city where no one would see me for a while. For the 2022 m3 festival, which was dedicated to the theme of railways, I created such a hideout in a vague space in the middle of the city. The patch sits on the border of a rail freight hub, an island of apartments ringed by a tram roundabout, an overgrown demolition site, modern art studios and a skyscraper under construction. The space is shared by train drivers waiting for their trains to be cleaned, random individuals passing when using the nearby bushes, dog walkers, and a bunch of high school kids spending their free hours on a couch by the railway trackside. 

Despite its height, the chameleon-like statue blended in well with either the apartment building’s escape staircase or the railroad power poles. A three meter high stalactite swayed within the techie structure, taking the then-trend of extracting power from stones to the extreme. On closer inspection, beneath this invisible monument was the second part of the sculpture: a wooden shelter, warmed with a thick layer of glass wool and a strong mass of clay. Its appearance was influenced by a fascination with simple survivalist dwellings as well as graffitti culture closely associated with the railroad, whose bubblegum outlines could be found at the sculpture surface. Inside the dwelling there was a simple low bench that could serve also as a pillow for an emergency sleepover, ornamental ceiling decoration referencing the airy appearance of historic buildings, and a spoon on a chain that evoked the solidarity and magic of the Prague suburbia of Gustav Mayrink’s The Golem. 

The sculpture, absorbing the character of the neighborhood into its form, was initially confusing for the locals. A group of homeless people attempted to ban the structure, referring to an imaginary state department of ecology; the students went to ask what it was and, upon finding out that it was a space where you could discuss something in peace with a friend, nodded their heads in satisfaction and acknowledged that it was a statue of a giant blunt. As the temporary shelter changed occupants and gradually succumbed to decay, a overheated political discussion arose between the residents of the flats and the inhabitants of the bushes who had temporarily gained a contact area, a place of gathering. 

text: Erika Velická, photo: Jan Rash, 2022